For anyone who believes that Appalachian coal mining is economically beneficial, you've got to read this. Key conclusion of this study: "The human cost of the Appalachian coal mining economy outweighs its economic benefits." Also, "The need to develop alternative economies becomes even more important when we realize that coal reserves throughout most of Appalachia are projected to peak and then enter permanent decline in about 20 years."
Any other questions?
h/t to one of the best environmental activists around, JW Randolph
I thought Appalachia was what right wingers like to call the "REAL America." So, why does Bill O'Reilly hate Appalachia and its people - the people that Jim Webb writes about in "Born Fighting" - so much? Here is some of what O'Reilly had to say:
I submit to you that the culture in Appalachia harms the children almost beyond repair... There's really nothing we can do about it,” O'Reilly told Sawyer.
She had a different view, of course. She said, “The great opportunity is the information economy... These kids are as smart as the kids in India.”
“Sure,” O'Reilly agreed. “But their parents are screwed up. That's the thing... Kids get married at 16 and 17. Their parents are drunks. I'm generalizing now. (Gee, ya think?) There's a lot of meth. There's a lot of irresponsibility. There's fear to go. Look, if I'm born in Appalachia, the first chance I get, I go to Miami. Because that's where the jobs are. But they stay there. And the cycle of poverty for 200 years – boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And I don't want to sound hopeless about it but I think it IS hopeless.”
[...]
...“I gotta tell you, people have to help themselves, you know? They have to wise up and they have to see that there's a culture of poverty there, a culture of ignorance there. And you either leave or you try to improve it any way you can.”
Imagine if a Democrat or - gasp! - a "liberal" had said this? The boys (and they're mostly boys) at Faux News would be going NUTS, talking about how this PROVES they hate America, blah blah blah. So, what's the reaction when Bill O'Reilly stereotypes all parents in Appalachia as a bunch of irresponsible drunks, immersed in a "culture of ignorance?" {cue sound of crickets chirping...]
P.S. When is the Republican Party of Virginia (RPV) leadership going to condemn Bill O'Reilly for slandering an important region of our Commonwealth?!? Imagine if Nancy Pelosi had said this; RPV chairman Jeff Frederick would be going nuts!
The purpose of Blue Virginia is to cover Virginia politics from a progressive and Democratic perspective. This is a group blog, founded by me (Lowell Feld), but now including several other progressive writers. I can't speak for the other "front pagers," but I consider myself a progressive in the tradition of Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, JFK, RFK and actually a bunch of progressive Republicans (e.g., Jacob Javits, Lowell Weicker). As such, I believe in expanding opportunities to all, utilizing government as a tool to promote the general welfare and the common good, protecting the environment for ourselves and for future generations, and expanding the rights promised in our Constitution and Bill of Rights to all Americans.
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For anyone who believes that Appalachian coal mining is economically beneficial, you've got to read this. Key conclusion of this study: "The human cost of the Appalachian coal mining economy outweighs its economic benefits." Also, "The need to develop alternative economies becomes even more important when we realize that coal reserves throughout most of Appalachia are projected to peak and then enter permanent decline in about 20 years."
